Belgium-Netherlands: 1-0!

Belgium definitely beat the Netherlands by acknowledging additional remuneration rights for artists!

In June 2022, the Belgian parliament approved some important novelties in its IP law:

• A non-transferable remuneration right for artists for the use of their performances on commercial (on-demand) streaming platforms, such as Spotify, Netflix, Deezer, Apple TV or Music, among others.
• A non-transferable remuneration right for artists for the use of their performance on UGC platforms, e.g. Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Twitch.

These remuneration rights are subject to mandatory collective management, in this case by the Belgian artist neighboring rights collective Playright who fought hard for these new remuneration rights.

The Netherlands, by contrast, have not made any move to ensure a separate remuneration right for artists. Lobbying efforts by artist unions have not been successful so far. Unlike Playright, the Dutch CMO SENA is governed by record labels and artists. As a result it’s not able to push for such artist rights at the same intensity.